Yesterday

I just finished violin practice and my left ear feels deaf. Like when you sit on a plane that's landing, just that only the left ear feels funny. Anyway, back to the point - yesterday.

Went to church as usual, ate lunch, came home, violin practice, started on 1 of 2 zuo wens. I wrote halfway and realised I needed a dictionary. I tried my electronic one but it wasn't working. That thing always causes the batteries to leak and then I have to clean up the thing. I cleaned it up not long ago and this time it was fine, so I thought that maybe it just had to die of old age. I nearly became the undertaker, until my father resurrected it.

After that, dad and I went cycling. The other half of the population is too lazy (my mom is too lazy to learn how to ride a bike while jean is too lazy to ride it). We cycled to pierce reservoir and around it. The road has many slopes. The slopes are so steep. Sometimes, I managed to persevere all the way up. Otherwise, I just got down halfway and walked the bike up. My dad managed to stay on his bike the whole time. I had a bad time thinking about gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy from the slopes. There is also one important theory that I had to keep reminding myself: if you go up, you will come down. So work hard for the uphill slope and the ride later is really very thrilling. Due to the constant uphills and downhills, I had to keep changing gear, and I had to think of the inevitable - principle of moments. Sigh.. that's what happens when you learn physics. Then after some time, We cycled all the way uphill and met a dead end. We ended up in front of PUB's water plant. That meant that we would have to do the slopes all over again, starting from the other side. So blah blah blah, up and down for the next 45 mins. My legs felt very tired and I didn't know if I would be able to walk today.

After we got out of the road at pierce reservoir, we cycled to the Casurina prata shop and the shops near it, bought back dinner and continued cycling back home. We stopped by at Thomson road. There's this nice bread confectionery so we bought back more food, and went for a drink at the hawker centre nearby. After that, we cycled back home. Then halfway, I suddenly realised my hand phone wasn't with me. So dad and I cycled all the way back to where we last parked our bike. I think about a meter before we reached, I suddenly remembered I put it in the plastic bag with all the bread on his bike. Fine, I admit I'm ageing. We treated it as exercise and cycled back home. Cycling on almost flat road was very relaxing compared to the other one, so we didn't mind.

I went up first with the food while my dad locked up the bikes. I entered the lift and I think I did press 13 but when I stepped out, I realised that the door of where my house should have been looked different. I entered the wrong lift lobby before so I decided to go down to the basement again to check. I was in the correct lobby. So I went up again and this time, I ended up at the correct house. I don't quite know what happened but I'll try to find out.

a thursday in the life of a lynn

A Thursday in the life of a lynn begins with sleeping, then waking up at about 5.55am. Then, walk sleepily to the dining room. When you just wake up, the muscles don't really work yet, so it is important to have a firm grip on the cup of milk. Not that I have ever tried, but the thought of suddenly dozing off while holding the cup just scares me enough not to risk it. Then, brush teeth, change into school uniform and do a final check on the school bag. After that, wait for Jean and mom to get ready (they are always the last), followed by a series of "sshhh"s from my mom so that we don't disturb dad who's still sleeping, then go to the basement (car park) and go to school.

At school, walk across the canteen, walk up one flight of stairs blah blah blah I shall not bother giving directions. Wait in the classroom till flag raising. Flag raising was in class. After that, lessons all the way till 2.30pm. Today, all 3 levels were having recess together, so it was really quite packed in the canteen and I couldn't bother queuing up. At about 11am, shouts and laughing could be heard almost all the time. The sec 1s and 2s were happily cleaning up the school. 1.30pm was more demoralising because from my window seat, I could see others outside at the bus stop, waiting to roam around or go home, while the rest of the poor headstart victims are stuck in class.

Today, there was no chinese intensive or music after school, so I could go home. I walked to the bus stop and missed 2 buses because of human reaction time. Whenever I stuck out my hand, the bus almost zoomed past the bus stop. I think I only managed to reach home today because someone else flagged down the bus before me.

When I reached the bus stop, I walked to the side gate, tapped my card, walked in, and found Jean sitting on a bench at the lift lobby. I had the key. She had all her books, lab coat, and cloths (for classroom cleaning) piled up beside her. The newspaper she was reading blocked her face and I nearly mistook her for a depressed-looking retrenchment victim.

I officially reached home at 3.15pm. Then, I took a shower, ate lunch, then did violin practice till 5.30pm. Violin practice is a 1 hour workout. After practice, the chin rest is usually wet. Also, when the violin is removed, there's usually a wet patch on the shirt where the shoulder rest rests. Oh, and a fan is blowing about 1m away. Conclusion: an hour of violin practice a day keeps the doctor away. Wait, no! It doesn't keep an ear doctor away. After practicing, there's usually a loud high pitched sound in the left ear (symptom of tinnitus). It gradually becomes softer after resting the ears for a few hours.

Then, do homework, use the computer. At about 7.15pm - dinner. Usually, we wait until my father comes home before eating dinner but he's off at Melacca for a few days. After that, complete more work, use more of the computer. Around 9, take a shower. Watch tv, news or any interesting documentary. Later at night, family prayer time, then sleep or continue doing urgent work.

End of a thursday in the life of a lynn. A friday in the life of a lynn begins tomorrow.

blah 2

It's the time of the year - sec 2s are filling out option forms for subjects next year. I happen to post about this because my sister had been bugging my whole family about it. Seems a very complicated matter. She's in her school's in-house GEP (their SBC classes), and so there are 2 classes. The classes don't like each other and so she doesn't know if she should choose subjects with her friends or stick with people she can't get along with. Everyone in the house has been bombarded with the question "so what do I choose?" countless times. Historically and genetically, my family does not have a good record in subjects like lit etc, but rather, the math and sciences. That's traced all the way to my grandparents and relatives. I think jean's the first to break this record.

Finished getting back all the papers on moday. I'm not really happy with english and chemistry. They are at an all-time low. The others are alright, though I had the urge to box myself after looking through some of my mistakes.

Today was the start of headstart. The teachers are really serious about this. They planned out their whole teaching structure for the entire 3 weeks. I'm quite impressed. And they seem to be trying to use a different approach to teaching their subjects. I think I'll be looking forward to the lessons.

After I got home today, I was quite sleepy. I cooked then ate lunch. By then, I really wanted to close my eyes and just sleep but I still had violin practice to do. So I decided to hang on for a while more and completed practice. Then I tried to complete the chinese homework. Write a 200 word short-essay about the topic, wo zui xing fu (I am the most fortunate person). I don't know what to write because I disagree with the topic. There's something with the word "zui" (most). I don't think I'm the most fortunate here in this world. Sure, I know I'm /more/ fortunate than some others but how would one measure fortunateness/fortune. The example they gave was some tragic experience where some girl lost her arms, her mother, but she was still grateful for everything. Fortune can also mean money. However, I don't have a most tragic experience nor billionaire status, so how can I be the /most/ fortunate. In the end, I started to doze off while trying to think of what to write. Eventually, I went to sleep and woke up after 2 hours for dinner.

That's all for now.

Today and the past few days

From Monday to Wednesday this week, I had been stuck in school with post exam activities. $12 per day, and 4 hours long (excluding recess). The materials we are given are not worth more than $2 (eg. wire and a piece of A4 paper), and we are hardly taught much. People could be seen sleeping and I was smart enough to bring a book on Wednesday. Zeng Xi put it very well, "Robbery la can".

Then today, we spent the first half of school in the hall, listening to talks, then playing games. It wasn't that bad. But then after recess, we went back to class. There were 13/42 people in class. So we had some forum like thing and the remaining/most of the time was spent reading/playing/sleeping. Though the school gave us class time without teachers' supervision, I'm surprised the noise level in the classroom block wasn't bad. I think everyone was too bored to even talk loudly or they were probably catching up on sleep. Oh, but a handful were busy going shopping at the bookstore for gifts for CIP.

I spent the classroom time reading, then eventually sleeping. No, actually, eventually waking up. I fell asleep after reading Boy and Going Solo for about 2.5 hours straight. After some time, I suddenly got poked and had to wake up. Ah and guess who - it was Jie Ying who suddenly came back from the Japan Exchange thing. If she tries that a few years later, I think by then, ageing would have gotten the better of me and I'd probably get a heart attack.

After school, I took 174 to Tangs at Orchard. As I am like some tourist on Orchard road, I didn't really know when to get off the bus. Fortunately, I met Ruri who was going to Taka (takashimaya, for my own reference/reminder). I managed to get her to help tell me when to get off.

I met mom and we walked over to Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre. I saw quite a number of students at a particular doctor's clinic. It specialised in bone problems, backbone I think. I took a hearing test. They only tested up to 8kHz, so I managed to hear the high frequency pretty normally. I had trouble with 0.5kHz (right) and 1.5kHz (left). The higher frequency part of the graph had a sharp drop around 6kHz for both ears. So in conclusion, a mild hearing loss, but not to the extent of needing a hearing aid - yet. The hearing loss isn't the curable type. That's because it's an internal injury to the nerves that pick up the filtered sounds that pass through the ear drum. My internal nerve injury is sound-induced. Internal injury can also be caused by illness or genetics. Then the doctor asked if I had problems hearing people in noisy places, I strongly agreed. And then he said something to my mom, like, oh there is some sign of it starting/taking effect. I don't really know what he was hinting at but I think it is tinnitus (hearing high pitched sounds in the ear, or any sound that doesn't go "lynn.. lynn.. do this..." or something of that sort. err.. that would be hallucinating).

The doctor did an otoscopy. He used this metal rod with a camera attached and stuck it into my ear. I was able to watch the movie live in front of me on a screen. Quite cool. I got to see my ear drum and the outer ear. There was no build up of ear wax, which means one cure/cause eliminated. Couldn't see any nerves because the ear drum blocks up that place. It acts like filter paper, and the outer ear like the filter funnel, filtering sounds. I was given a short bio lesson with this model of an ear, and he stopped once in a while to marvel at God's wonderful creation.

The doctor is a music lover and was talking about recent and upcoming concerts. He said all musicians are deaf, just to different extents. Now I'm starting to think of as many musicians as I know who may actually be deaf. I wasn't asked to put ear plugs or stop violin. Not curable, but need monitoring, so I have to go back next year. Like an eye check.

I reached home at 5 and then did violin practice. Today was a tiring day. Tomorrow is part 1 of checking of scripts. Oh no..

Marking Day

Today is Friday, it was marking day. MOE should just make this an official school holiday. Though most people still have to go back to school for whatever strange reasons, it's not much different from a normal holiday. Maybe the only difference is that there's no homework to dread. 

I woke up at 9.30am after procrastinating for about 1 hour++. Then ate breakfast, blah blah blah. After that, I decided to use the computer. Jean and I decided to go back to playing Runescape because we were utterly bored. I haven't played that for at least 3 years already. I think Jean has been playing it sometimes because when we stopped, we were at about the same level, but now there's a difference of 18. It took me some time to try to hack into my account because I'm aging. 

After that, we ate lunch, then I did violin practice. Then, went out for a hair cut. I was looking forward to this day because I thought I would finally be able to edit my hair. The previous time, the sides were too jutting out. This time, I made sure I told the hair dresser about it. But due to some miscommunication, the side got edited correctly, but she thought I wanted the back shorter. Sigh.. I think I look like those mini mushrooms you usually see in cans. Looks like I'll have to wait 3 more months before I can try to edit it again. In the meantime, I will prepare the requirements so that I get the right idea across next time.

After that, Jean and I bought bubble tea and took a bus back. Mom was out at the ENT. She also has the same hearing problem as me. Just that I don't think it's music-induced hearing loss. Ok fine, she has been hearing pretty much what I have been hearing for the past almost 7 years. It could be my fault for creating the noise, but then.. who knows. Hers is high frequency hearing loss, tinnitus. I think mine's the same. Just that it'll be more severe on the left. Her doctor also has some hearing loss. I don't know if it's because he was trying to research about his hear, and then ended up being an ENT specialist. He plays the drums, and says people who play music are more likely to have a hearing loss. But then, for drums, if you don't play it loudly, then what's the point of playing it. I think it's the same for violin, though I don't know how one can disperse the sound waves from  the left ear. 

Then, Jean and I went to play squash downstairs from 5-7pm. The squash room/court was so echo-y I am almost certain I heard 2 elephants. When we play properly, leisurely, non-attackingly, there's this interesting 4-beat rhythm. Boom (ball hits floor) - *puck*  (raquet squashes ball) - *charrr* (ball gets bangs itself on the wall) - Boom (elephant stampede to get the ball)  - and repeat from step 1. And so when you want to do a "roll" (like on the drums, hitting the toms), you (the elephant) should stamp a few times, in doubles or a triplet, whatever effect you want. After playing, my fingers couldn't open or close properly. I think all they could do was just continue holding the raquet. I'm thankful I'm not a left hander

The 5 golden theories:

1. You can try to help your opponent by helping them smack the poor ball

2. But, don't do it more than twice in a row - the third shot will definitely not make it

3. One hour into the game, don't hit the ball for your opponent more than twice in a row - the opponent's shot won't be able to squash the ball on the wall properly next

4. one and a half hour into the game, do not have any intention of hitting it the third time in a row - blah blah blah you know why... (sorry, longwindedness is a symptom of aging)

5. Don't try to have a conversation in the squash court. You'll end up talking to yourself or the ball. Instead, you can try singing a song in accordance to the four beat rhythm (jean was doing that and I had to try very hard to remind passers by that they were not walking past an asylum). This reminds me of reverberation...

I think my teeth were tired today. I chewed on the same batch of vegetable I sent up for about 10 minutes. I ended up taking an hour to eat dinner. Enough blabbering for now. Bye

3(blah)

Today is Wednesday. There was Accident math paper 1 in the morning. I shall not depress myself by typing about depressing things. On a happier side, tomorrow is music, one more paper to go. There's a pile of dead composers to install in my brain. I think I was already celebrating last Friday after the geography paper because I could finally download all my stored memory in the hall.

I just discovered Windows Live Writer not long ago. There is this row of icons on the top part of my Internet window. Then one of them read, "blog it" and I thought it was some useless Myspace or Windows spaces thing and so I ignored it for a few months. Then today, I got bored and tried clicking it. And that's how I finally saw some light at the end of a tunnel. No, a light on top of a well.

Last Sunday, dad went to jiang dao (preach? more familiar with the Chinese term) at Bukit Arang gospel hall (a branch of my church). The church is really suffering from an ageing population and is almost 10 times smaller than the main branch. I felt worried for Dad's Chinese. It didn't exactly sound very fluent but at least, for someone like me, I was on almost level ground so his sermon was relatively understandable. What do we build our faith on? On things on Earth, like passing exams, or on things that are eternal? But let's say we fail a test, such environmental factors would cause our faith to weaken, but when we base it on something eternal, it is less easily able to be weakened by sudden changes. It is a timely reminder for most of us Christians as over time, if we blame God when we encounter tough times and start turning away, maybe our faith isn't firmly built on the optimum thing.

I think Jean is going to become nocturnal. She's going to become an owl soon. Recently, she's been sleeping in the late-mid afternoon until dinner time, then staying up until past midnight before sleeping. In addition, I learnt not long ago that she "mugs" at about 4am, rather unsuccessfully. I've never tried mugging before but bearing in mind how contrasting I am against her, I don't think I would survive the next few hours of an exam.

I really can't remember if anything interesting happened in school this week. Argh... ageing. Next year, I'll have to be in sec 4, SMSS senior citizen. Ahh.. I need a brain extension. (a less torturing method, please. Jie ying don't think of it..) I can't seem to remember anything significant that happened other than papers after papers.

Ok I give up thinking. I've been thinking for the past 2 hours. Alright, digressing 75% of the time but I will update again if I do manage to think of anything significant enough. Sorry this is a sign of ageing...

Had violin lesson today. It rained heavily and the ground looked like an ant beach. Oh, typing of ants, I declare the ant war officially over. I have not managed to spot any ants lingering in my territory. I don't really know who won the war though. The ants left my territory, I murdered some of their manpower, but they wasted dettol, effort, time and my holiday. Back to the point, tasks so far: rojak 2nd movement (some parts), the rest of the movements and 4th one, then Beethoven Romance No. 2 in F Major op. 50

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